The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans

by M. Evans

  The Major nodded, ran his hand through his graying, short, stubbled hair, and looked with tired eyes that said it all. "Frank, you know I would keep you on the staff forever, but unfortunately your wife's chemo didn't take. It made her body shut down faster. They think that it's possible that the cancer was further along than they thought. She passed away yesterday and word just made it here an hour ago. You have my deepest sympathy and arrangements have been made for you to be on the next plane back to the States. You have a son that needs to be taken care of."

  Before the sun had even set, he was on the first of the many flights needed to cover the saddest journey home of his life.

  Chapter 3

  Day -216: October 26th, 2016. World Population 7,324,473,285

  Shaun worked his way through the city. The town was shutting down for the night, all but the coffee shops and restaurants. He didn't have anywhere he wanted to go, but didn't want to be home by himself. He wasn't afraid of running into his dad because he'd have to be home for that to be a possibility. He knew that there would be no worry about that for hours. There were too many memories and personal ghosts to deal with when he was by himself. He could never get over losing his mother, but over the years he'd learned to cope with it somewhat. He replaced how much he missed his mother with the blame he put on his dad. He never got over the fact his dad wasn't in his life when he truly needed him the most. Shaun hated that, with each passing day, the short and precious time he had with his mother before she passed was getting more and more difficult to remember.

  Meanwhile, Ellie was doing her homework while picking at a plate of spaghetti. She thought about playing it dumb for the next day and skipping her homework, but she figured the teachers would ask why it wasn't completed when she had a perfectly good syllabus with all the course work and daily assignments outlined.

  She was only half focused on her assignment. In the back of her mind was Greg smiling at her, and the memory of him making a scene in the detention room. Her delicate finger lingered over the mouse on her desk unsure what she should do. Greg Thompson's profile picture was smiling at her on the screen. She was contemplating hitting either the friend or message button, telling herself that it would only be polite if she thanked him for helping them with Principal Peterson earlier. She couldn't ignore the fact that being gorgeous wasn't a deciding factor why she wanted to talk with him.

  Just as she was applying pressure to the mouse, a light knock on the window startled her, making her heart skip. She moved to the corner of her room gazing out the shade, she saw someone was there and slowly made her way to the window. She pulled back the shade quickly and screamed at the figure outside.

  The look on Ellie's face, and the volume she was capable of screaming at caused Shaun to stumble backwards, landing on his back, and knocking some of the air out of his lungs. He looked in bewilderment at her and smiled nervously. "Hi, Ellie. Bad time?"

  Ellie reached up unlocked the window and slid it open. She leaned out. "You effing scared the hell out of me! It's a good thing that my mom isn't home right now! Anyway, I figured the way you were running from the school, you were already home."

  Shaun pushed himself up off the leaf covered ground. "I haven't been home yet.... My dad and I didn't see eye to eye at the school earlier."

  Ellie looked worried. "What was it about? Was it because you stuck up for me? I'm so sorry if I got you in trouble with your dad!"

  Shaun shook his head. "It's not your fault Ellie. I could've pissed him off all on my own. I don't think that he really cared about that. He and I have some long term issues that we've been working on for a while."

  "Like you've been trying to fix something between you guys?"

  "The tension between us has been more like a balloon that's on the verge of exploding. Well, that last bit of air must have been today, because the whole damn thing exploded. Usually it's my job to be sick of him, and he tries to do the fatherly thing just often enough to try and make me think he really cares."

  "Why don't you climb in? You look kind of creepy sitting outside a teenage girl's window in the dark." She tossed a wink as she took his backpack and stood back while he awkwardly climbed through the opening. Shaun came in and sat down. Chills ran up his spine as he looked around the room at the bed, the dresser, and garments in a dirty laundry bin. He was pretty confident that the top label of a pair of underwear were sticking out. Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a teen male happy.

  "Ok," Ellie continued, "now that we don't have to worry about the cops being called, spill your beans! I don't want you blowing up either."

  Shaun stared around the room for a while trying to think how he'd try and explain his story. He took a big breath. "You already know that when I was four or five my mom got sick?"

  "Your mom had breast cancer right? That can't be easy for a family to go through."

  He looked at her remembering she wasn't really in his life at that time. "Well actually it wasn't a sickness where everyone in the family was there to help deal with the stress. I didn't know what was really happening at the time. I understood getting sick, but to that depth had no clue. I never dealt with a death in the family at that age. She had her right breast removed and the prognosis was good. My dad left a week afterwards while she was still healing and getting strong enough for chemotherapy."

  Ellie looked concerned. "What do you mean your dad left? Like my dear beloved father who couldn't put the bottle down and left, or did he had a valid reason for leaving?"

  "He got recalled to his old unit in the Army and basically disappeared in the middle of the night."

  Ellie smiled for a second. "Is your dad a spy? Hot guys are always spies.... I bet he was like 007!"

  Shaun shook his head. "My dad's a bio nerd. He's not cool enough to be a spy. Nobody named Francis is a spy, and God, please quit calling him cute! You see, when I ask him now and back then what he was working on, all he told me was that sometimes we have to put the good of others before the good of yourself. I asked him why he couldn't have used that back then and picked my mom instead of his job, but he told me it was for the greater good. Try explaining that to a four-year-old though, but I still don't understand today."

  "Wait.... Who was taking care of you and your mother during that time? There's no way she could manage that on her own."

  Shaun nodded sitting down on the bed and took in a big breath. "Yeah, no way for her to handle that. With dad gone we were forced to move in with her parents, my Grandma and Grandpa Thomas. If you thought that my distaste for my dad left a bad flavor in my mouth, then you should have seen my Grandpa. He'd say on more than one occasion, 'How in the hell does a young man with a family go play with test tubes all day in some god forsaken desert?' Mom stuck up for him when she wasn't too exhausted from treatments. All I really remember is her saying how dad needed to do it ... that it was part of a bigger picture and not to blame him."

  "So the treatments didn't go on forever. Did it come back, or did it just not work?"

  "Well it worked, but the cancer cells can regenerate like any other cell. I don't know what else they could've done for her, but I'd like to think that there was something they could've done to save her." He fought back a tear as he thought about the last time he got to see his mother.

  Chapter 4

  Day -3165: September 29th 2008. World Population 6,696,637,725

  She took his hand and stared deep into his young tired eyes trying to think of what she could say to tell him it was okay. This was only a small part of his life and she didn't want him to be traumatized forever because of one horrible time. She didn't want him to hate his father for not being there. She knew very well what he was working on and if it could save tens of thousands of lives, maybe what he was working on was more important as part of the bigger picture. Trying to explain that to a four-year-old was all but impossible.

  His mother rubbed his hair gently and pulled him in for the last hug she would possibly ever give. The problem with cancer is its
unpredictability. It puts doctors in optimistic positions to say that it looks like she is going to pull through, or she's only looking at one to three months and then she'll live another year. A precious year filled with memories, pain, and sorrow. Marie spoke softly, "Shaun, how are you feeling baby?"

  Shaun looked up. "I don't mind staying with Grandma and Grandpa, but why can't we just stay at home? I miss my room, my toys, and my friends."

  Marie shed a little tear as she brushed an IV-filled hand across Shaun's. "Well, honey, if your dad could be here then you wouldn't be staying at your grandparents. It's not that bad, is it?"

  Shaun shook his head. "It's not that bad. I miss everyone. I miss dad, too. You keep saying he's doing something too important, but then Grandpa calls him a bum who ran out on us and then Grandma agrees. What does that mean when he calls him a bum, mom?"

  Marie looked down at her son. "Your dad told me that sometimes you have to put others before yourself and your own happiness. That was something that your dad was forced to do. He is too good a man to leave us in distress and pain, but the job he is doing is going to help so many, honey, that he had to go. He loves you and me very much and would never leave if he had a choice. He's going to be gone a while longer, but by the time I finish the therapy he'll be home. Try not to blame him. If he could be here he would be, honey. I promise."

  Shaun nodded his head resting it on his mother's bedside, but the promise she made faded away after he realized his mother had just said her dying words, and they were about how it was okay his father wasn't there, and that he was going to have to go through with all of this on his own.

  Yeah, he'd try and not blame his dad too much.

  Chapter 5

  Day -126: January 24th, 2017 World Population 7,343,640,585

  Over the last few months there had been a lot of rough waters. Frank and Karen had been seeing more than their fair share of each other. Shaun was at a point where he couldn't take it any longer. Having a big get together with the Fox men and the Randall girls over Thanksgiving had been really awkward. It was fun spending an entire day with Ellie during break, but it wasn't as much fun having to watch her mom and his dad pretend like they didn't want to be all over each other.

  He couldn't talk to many people about it. His friend Greg had been more of a staple at the Fox household, and lately seemed to be the only one he could talk to about the changes. He wouldn't complain to Ellie how he'd like to be dating her, and how, instead, their parents were being the ones hooking up and making them closer and closer to being related every day. Ellie didn't seem too worried about her mom and Francis falling for each other.

  When the two of them had been together it started slowly, but, by the end of November, it was clear that her once-in-a-while random thoughts about Greg were becoming more regular. It was beginning to grow on Shaun's nerves that she was falling for Greg and she was hoping Shaun would help play cupid. He didn't have the heart to tell her that Greg was interested in a special somebody, too. Unfortunately that was Tina Bunning. Greg, as a trouble-making bad-boy type, was the opposite for the most part of Shaun. It was not uncommon for Greg to describe in detail the acts he intended on doing with Tina, given she had aspirations of being an adult movie star.

  Shaun stared at the ceiling, tapping his pencil on his journal, thinking how he could put his thoughts down on paper correctly. It wasn't that he hated his dad but felt that a few years after his mom passing would have gone more smoothly had he have been there when she had passed away.

  A sharp knock on his the door removed him from his deep thoughts. It startled Shaun who was trying to lose himself in his journal. He picked up the pencil and looked up to meet his dad's eyes. He rejected the smart ass pull to call his dad Francis and simply sighed. "What's up, dad?"

  Frank was thinking hard about the coming day and the knock-down drag-out verbal war which was sure to come on their annual hunting trip. Frank thought about canceling it this year, something he was pretty sure that Shaun would not be worried about. He kept it because it was a family tradition going back to when he was a young man. The lessons he felt it taught about wilderness survival, learning to use a firearm and be productive with it, and a cut off from all the damn technical advances cell phones, music players, and video games wouldn't hurt him a bit.

  He looked around Shaun's room at the game console, a laptop sitting opened, and a cell phone next to it making weird noises. "So are you all set for Saturday morning? We need to get up bright and early to get on the road."

  Shaun sighed thinking how the tensions between them had been boiling at the brim lately. The thought of sitting with dear old dad made him squirm and if he decided to have small talk about Karen then things would be getting heated fast. His dad was under the mindset if he kept inviting the girls over that they would just be one big happy family. Did his dad somehow think he was a baby and went to sleep at 9pm every night, and that he couldn't hear Karen arriving a few times a week, or his dad leaving a few times a week for overnight stays?

  Shaun looked around the room. There were clothes everywhere but the camouflage fatigues which should have been laid out along with his sleeping bag and his extra clothes for the next few days just weren't put together yet. It wasn't a current priority. "I'll pack later and be ready for tomorrow."

  Frank had been ready for two days, already pre-packed with all his gear ready to go sitting in the living room for an easy carry outside in the morning. He ran his hands through his hair--it was a nervous trait. He thought about when he was Shaun's age--he would be so excited and pumped up with adrenaline to go hunting with his own dad that he could barely sleep the night before. His dad didn't have to worry about him being ready. The night of Deer Hunting Eve, he'd be oiling his shotgun and double checking everything was ready. It annoyed the hell out of him how nonchalant his own son was about going. Someone who was half of himself he thought the trait would have rubbed off.

  "It's all about the finish work, you know? A successful hunt is because of good preparation, Shaun. Don't forget the cabin is a few hours away and most of that is on foot. So whatever you think you need, be ready to carry it up in your pack."

  Shaun thought about this. "This is just our annual deer trip right? We're not going to become survivalists in the mountains right? Or I guess it'd be the hills of Iowa?"

  Frank shook his head and smiled. "No, smart ass. Just make sure you stuff's ready to go. I already made sure that the guns, ammo, and hunting tags were taken care of. I picked up some new two and three quarter steel slugs guaranteed to punch a hole right through them. They're good to go. Wheels on the road at oh-four-hundred, so make sure you're up. I'm going to turn in soon, so make sure you don't stay up too late. You might need to drive."

  "Right.... A thirteen-year-old driving. That'd be legal! Anyways, it's only twenty minutes away. I'll get packed once my writing is finished."

  Shaun finished putting his thoughts down on paper and found his hunting clothes his dad had picked up for him. He packed the extra set in his hunting backpack along with the other clothes he'd need to stay warm at night when he wasn't trying to blend in with the deer. He stuffed essentials in there like his journal, pens, and a few modern day items that he'd not be able to live without. He packed his knife his Grandpa had made for him from a deer antler and he took out his wallet. He opened it to make sure the picture of his mother was there, kissed it, closed it and stuck his wallet into a water tight compartment in his hunting clothes bag. His dad always joked that no one was crazy enough to try and drive a vehicle up there, so everything that you wanted had to be taken in by pack. If his Grandpa hadn't had horses and a sled, the place would have never been built in the first place.

  Chapter 6

  Day -125: January 25th, 2017 World Population 7,343,853,555

  Morning came too soon, and as Shaun wandered out towards the kitchen the sweet smell, and the only good thing to him about the hunting trip, was the giant breakfast his dad would cook once a year. He squinted at the
bright lights of the kitchen, and took in the deep smells of coffee brewing, eggs being scrambled, and bacon sizzling in the pan. He rubbed his eyes and saw his dad bouncing back and forth from skillet to skillet. His dad was already decked out in camo pants and a black, short sleeve t-shirt. He wouldn't put everything else on until they arrived or he'd be sweating in no time. Frank noticed his son standing there in flannel pajama pants and nothing else. "Are you all set to get a monster buck, Shaun?"

  Shaun, who was anything but a morning person, shrugged and let out a non-committal grunt.

  His dad laughed and took a long pull from his black coffee as he kept stirring the food around so it wouldn't burn. "Don't get too excited all at once! I don't want you to pull anything."

  Shaun stretched and walked over to look at the food. He closed his eyes and could remember this kind of treat being weekly with his mother as opposed to yearly the morning of deer season. He peered around his dad and managed, "Smells good.... Is it ready yet?"

  Frank shook his head. "Tell you what, why don't you get dressed and brush your teeth? We can eat these on the road."

  "That works for me, but are you going to be able to eat these on the road?"

  Frank opened the oven up, pulled out a large round pan of steaming hot fresh tortillas, and laid it on one of the two precut aluminum foil wrappers on the counter. "Who needs to waste time sitting around eating when we can make the worlds fattest to-go breakfast burrito?"

  Frank picked up the eggs, the green chili sauce, the bacon, potatoes and spicy pepper jack cheese. By the time he was done with the creation and wrapped it with another layer of foil, they were as thick as a man's forearm. He secured them in a thermo lunch box, topped off his coffee, and grabbed a couple sports drinks for Shaun.